middleofsomewhere | Fissures of Time: Ongoing

Fissures of Time: Ongoing

FISSURES OF TIME: ONGOING

... POI 10-12

FOR SOME, THE MISSION HAS BEEN MORE MENTALLY EXHAUSTING THAN PHYSICALLY. Distortions sprout around the domain without rhyme or reason, and the camps must be moved every new day to meet them, as well as stopping a distortion from deciding to form under them from their presence.

While there's bare-bones vegetation, at least they have their own resources to help one another, as well as what can be retrieved from the Ministry base during return trips to take misplaced civilians to safety. It's straight-forward so far...

...but that wouldn't be standard for the Voidtreckers, and some in their ranks don't want straight-forward. Starting during the early hours of Poi 10, there will be occasional rumblings throughout the land. They last for a few seconds and then stop, seemingly for hours; but then they return, and as the days go on, so do the tremors increase.

It seems the distortions too have become affected...

THE UNQUIET CITY. (CW: People unable to die/rising from the dead, body horror)

A city of rubble and ruin stretches far out around them, where once there were hills and vegetation. Much of the rubble is still smoking as fires smoulder. The fighting isn't over, heard before it's seen.

It must be connected to the same skirmishes seen in other distortions, and so most of you are prepared to meet warriors on foot and mount. But what awaits isn't only the horror of bloodshed. No: the reason that the fighting still continues even as the city lies in ruin is because fighters fall and rise again, as if death were nothing but a short rest.

Puncture marks litter skin and armour, holes from weaponry and blessed-magic visible in torsos, even the spaces of where portions of one's skull and brain should be.

Yet they cannot stop fighting. They cannot fall to the ground, rest. Whatever drove them to fight this war still inspires them to continue, screaming as much in pain as in some sort of twisted ecstasy. Perhaps they are too shocked to do anything else. A city locked in eternal war, distorted in time, doomed to repeat itself.

It's hard to set the equalisers here. Not much is stable and fights are likely to break out wherever there are people. The people of this city have their factions, but they will not hesitate to band together to fight intruders.

EYE OF THE STORM.

They might feel this distortion before they enter it. A spine-chilling thrill, the feeling one might get at the edge of a storm.

—For a storm it is. The moment they enter it their vision will be obstructed, winds howl around them and rain lashes down furiously making a swamp of the ground below them. It's freezing cold and as they walk they will feel something in the storm. Almost as if there are icy hands, reaching out to grab at them, to pull them further into the worst of the weather.

It's hard to know where to place the equalisers, hard to see where the edges of this distortion are. Easier, not by much, to move further in, to find the epicentre and try and take it down from there.

It's a treacherous journey, but the centre truly is calm, water frozen like crystals. Yet temperatures are dangerously low, so it's in everyone's best interests to set the equalisers quick and get out.

MEAN AND GREEN. As the rumbling continues, there comes a strange and worrying distortion. Worrying, as this distortion can be seen from the outside. A hazy blur that seems to move across the countryside, along the left side of the camp you're stationed at. It gets dangerously close at times, and when it does...

Green tendrils of plant life burst out, entangling people to pull them into the distortion. Or chains of flowers spread from the distortion out across the countryside. Beautiful and colourful in the otherwise sparse environment, but those flowers work as anchors, spreading the distortion, expanding it.

To get rid of it they will need to enter, and inside is a thick jungle of vines and bright colourful flowers awaiting them. The foliage is thick and the air musky and sweet. It's easy to get separated, and getting lost is only a matter of getting turned around. The leaves are sticky and vines move seemingly on their own, curling around unsuspecting limbs, trying to trap people in this colourful paradise forever.

And up in the sky above, a woman's laughter can be heard, the heat of the sun bearing down that becomes uncomfortable quick. But don't look up - you may find a large yellow eye - yellow iris, yellow pupil, golden yellow everything - peering back at you, and find yourself being pulled in by the very ground itself by a powerful force.

NO SANCTUARY. Protecting the camps hasn't been difficult, despite it being a Purple task. Other than rowdy refugees breaking out into fights, little else has appeared to disturb them.

'Eiiiiliiifii.... Siiiiliiifiii...
Merios? Herios?
Don't hide... don't hide...
Everything will be so perfect soon...'

People are woken abruptly in the early hours of Poi 11. If by some special sense, or by a grab at their throat, by a body falling on top of where they sleep, someone else stopping the refugee who was about to take a knife to them.

The refugees have become uncontrollable, raving about wanting 'their Gods back'. The ground rumbles as the woman's voice from the hazy jungle - ethereal, so divine - speaks from below. Grass rises and the sky above burns with a brightness like an approaching sun.

Setting an equaliser will calm the refugees, but only those in the camps. Starting from lunchtime, more warriors and civilians will be found appearing from the distance and from thin air, seemingly knowing where to find the Voidtreckers' camps - and after some very specific people.

Those with divinity, control over weather, nature, and death will be especially targeted, along with anyone who received blessings from the Gods.

OOC NOTES

OOC post. Ask questions here. Let us know about shenanigans here. NPC requests here, set up a thread here. Rewards go here.

TL;DR: Starting on Poi 10, there will be odd tremors around the domain, and more aggressive time distortions. From Poi 11 refugees will lose control of themselves and start attacking Voidtreckers, in and out of the camp.

It will happen abruptly to begin with, but some keen to reading energy will find that it is shifting; like something is breaking in from somewhere else (similar to the time distortions).

Extra equalisers can be picked up from the Ministry base and they will be there to help, but there are also more distortions happening around the domain, so they'll be dealing with those. The Ministry will advise that any non-combatants should stick to the base, and even use the scouting drones to help from afar, if they really need to help.

Undead warriors can be found outside of time distortions, and not all of the people outside of distortions will be 'permanent' people. Equalisers can be kept going for a few hours to keep these people away, but will also need go into recharge/cooling mode.

Don't worry if you're still busy with the Starting log! Or if you've been meaning to tag, jump in here!

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Inigo is here. Thank the gods, Inigo is here-

He grips Inigo's hand briefly - definitely to steady himself more than anything else - but then lets go. His job is to get out of the way of the warriors, to let them handle the situation, and to take care of them once the fighting is over. He points at the person still trapped in the fabric of the tent, struggling to get out - "Yeah." - and then gets the hell out of the way.

Even though Inigo looks relatively calm on the outside, there's about a thousand thoughts racing through his head. Trying to calculate this situation, trying to figure out what the best thing here is to do. Instinct tells him to neutralize the threat immediately, but they don't fully know what's going on here yet - and it's not like he wants to potentially traumatize Ryo either by killing someone right in front of him, especially when he isn't sure what the other is used to.

It means that Inigo puts his sword back into its sheath for a moment, instead pulling the canvas of the tent off the struggling person, and then quickly jumping on top of them to tackle them to the ground, keeping them pinned underneath his own body.

It's then that he has a realisation, watching the face of the person struggling underneath him.

".. This is one of the people we saved though."

Not a bandit. Not some threat from outside the camp. It's someone Inigo saw some of the blue team members feed only yesterday. Then why are they acting this way now?

Ryo recognizes that calm - it's not so much calm as it is focus, locked into place because losing focus in a situation like this would make everything so much worse. It's the calm he summons before a difficult healing.

Regardless, he steps back and gives Inigo room to work, keeping an eye out for anyone else approaching - luckily, at the moment, everyone else is preoccupied. The tackle is a surprise, but he recovers quickly and darts in after Inigo, scooping up Lagos and looping his satchel over his shoulder. "Thank you," he says softly, for Lagos's ears only, before stowing the Chthonic Companion in his satchel, pulling a knife, and carefully approaching Inigo.

He stops dead when Inigo speaks and takes a closer look at his assailant, eyes widening as realization sinks in. Inigo is right - it's a refugee from the camp. They'd been brought in yesterday. "By the gods."

But why-?

The refugee has recovered enough from the impact to start struggling and yelling, screaming about how they want their gods back, and Ryo stares at them as his mind races. This got worse overnight, and there's more screaming, and- "Wait, do you think they're all like this now?"

Wait- what the hell is he doing-

He pulls his pack out of his borrowed arms band and fishes in it for rope, approaching and dropping to a knee once he finds it, beginning to bind the refugee's wrists as best he can. He doesn't have a way to knock them out easily - this is as good as it gets without getting more violent.

Inigo doesn't verbally reply at first. Instead he just shifts a little, trying to position himself so he can both push down the guy still, yet also give Ryo the space to work on tying the other up. Inigo has no objections to that plan, at least. What else are they supposed to do with these people? It's not exactly like they can hurt them, especially when they still have no clue what's going on.

.. especially since what the guy is saying doesn't help Inigo much. It just sounds like more of the agitation these people have already had ever since coming to camp, but..

Well, it's not like it's ever been this bad. It's not like they've ever been attacked.

"I don't know about all, but.."

Inigo pauses. On purpose, like he's trying to make the sound of the chaos in the rest of the camp obvious.

".. It sounds like a lot of them." Or maybe just some really loud ones. It's hard to tell until he'll get a chance to fully check out this situation. "Like this, suddenly overnight.. It's strange. It's not like some sort of distortion appeared over us."

They would've noticed, right? But the camp looks the same as ever. It's just the people who are different, and Inigo frowns as he alternates between watching Ryo at work and keeping an eye on their surroundings, in case anyone else looks ready to jump them.

He finishes the wrists - the knots aren't exactly professional, but they should hold, at least for a while. He moves on to the legs next - wrists, ankles, and then bind them together. He doesn't have anything that can distract or knock them out completely (and what he wouldn't give for an illusionist right now), so this will have to do.

He shakes his head. "We have to do something - not everyone here can fight." There has to be something they can-

Wait-

"It's not like some sort of distortion appeared over us"

What if- what if that's it?

"What if we set up an equalizer? Even if it's not a distortion, maybe it'll still help?" He has no idea if that's the case, but it has to be worth a try, right?

"Let's try."

Apparently it's something Inigo doesn't have to think deeply about right now. The situation is wild and chaotic - which means they need to contain it as soon as possible, and it's not like Inigo has a better idea to try out to do exactly that right now. These people do come from the distortions, after all, so even if there is no distortion over the camp, it might still have an effect on them.

Getting off the now thoroughly tied up person, Inigo moves to stand next to Ryo, pulling out his sword.

(Don't worry, don't worry, it's mostly for defense only - he doesn't plan to stab an innocent person if he can help it.)

"I'll help you get to them." You know, since Inigo is a bit better at the fighting defense thing than Ryo is. "Do you know where they're being kept here?"

"Okay." It's something to focus on - it's better than nothing - and something in him settles knowing that Inigo is with him on this. They have a goal.

He retrieves his knife from where he'd dropped it on the ground in favor of the rope and straightens up. He's not worried by Inigo's sword; if someone is trying to kill you, survival comes first and all other bets are off. It's the reason he's carrying a knife himself. "Probably in the supply tents. There's one this way." He nods to his right and starts walking, making sure Inigo is coming with him before picking up speed.

Please Ryo, he is trying to be good here!

It's not like he picks up on any of Ryo's thoughts though. He just follows the other's words, and tries to focus on what the best thing to do here is. Which is for them to start jogging through camp as well as they can, in the direction of the nearby supply tent Ryo has pointed out.

Inigo carefully tries to steer their path towards it in such a way that they don't come across any of the people who seem just about ready for jump them.

It's not easy, but it is worth the effort, since it saves them from getting into some fight before they already arrive at the tent. Leaving the grabbing of the device up to Ryo, Inigo instead keeps watch, mumbling: "This entire situation has become a mess."

Couldn't they have one easy mission without things escalating like this. Or at least some sort of explanation as to why this is happening? Sure would've been nice!

Survival first, being good later.

He lets Inigo steer, staying away from the refugees as best he can, and while his Sense helps with that, it can only do so much. Still, they manage to avoid most of the conflict, and Ryo slips inside the tent as Inigo stands guard. "Tell me about it."

It doesn't take him too long to find an equalizer, and he takes it in hand and heads back out to Inigo. "I don't know where to set this up - do you think here would work?" Anywhere would be better than not at all, right?

"Might as well try here."

Inigo isn't too sure about the range of these devices.. But if one of them can break up a distortion, then surely it shouldn't matter too much where they put it here, right? The camp isn't even that huge, Inigo thinks as he glances around.

And it sure beats having to fight their way to another spot in camp, especially when they don't even know what spot that would be.

"If nothing else, it should at least influence the people closest to here."

And Inigo can see a few of those. They're not too close, so they thankfully don't bother the two of them, but they're close enough that Inigo is pretty sure he'd be able to see a change in their behaviour if it'd work.

"Okay." It's all the reassurance Ryo needs (the confidence of the blind leading the blind, but nonetheless), and he takes a knee and starts setting up the device. It takes a minute to drag the correct sequence of button presses from his memory - this isn't exactly intuitive for him - but he finally manages it, leaning back a bit as energy washes over the camp.

The noise nearest to them dies down, replaced with confusion, and Ryo looks up at Inigo. "Did it work?" What does he see?

It takes a moment for the device's effect to kick in - to a point where Inigo at first wonders if they had the wrong idea. Maybe this device can't change the situation here after all, and Inigo will frantically have to try to think of a new way to get this situation back under control. And a way to keep people like Ryo safe, considering they aren't as used to fighting on the frontlines ~~and are clearly not planning on shanking a person with a knife, obviously, clearly..~~

But then it does kick in. It's a bit of a weird sight, but Inigo can visibly witness the displaced people growing calmer. Weapons are being dropped, and they sit down - for a moment almost looking dazed, like they aren't quite sure what happened.

".. it worked." There's obvious relief in Inigo's voice, even though he doesn't quite smile. He glances over at Ryo, giving the other a both friendly and congratulatory pat on the back. "That was a great idea."

~~What are you talking about, Inigo, clearly this is a throwing knife. Shanking knives look different.~~

There's a few very long, very tense moments, and Ryo sags with relief when confirmation finally comes. Whatever had happened, they'd fixed it. Thank the gods. "Good, because I didn't have another idea."

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Fissures of Time: Ongoing

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figure ryo can just set it off and then we can wrap it!

sounds like a plan

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Wrap?